But now?
“What do I fucking want?” I ask out loud, kicking out at a particularly large piece of vase that managed to survive, sending it flying across the floor and into the wall.
Her face immediately comes to mind.
Daphne.
I want her. I thought I wanted revenge but deep down, she’s what I’ve always wanted.
Even if she doesn’t want you back? Even if she’s faithless?
I can never trust her, not now.
But I can still possess her.
Don’t expect life to be fair. And possession is nine-tenths of the law. If she’s mine, he can never have her. She’ll be in my bed. Her ass under my belt, submitting so beautifully.
If I can’t have love, then I’ll break and enslave her to my mastery. No, she’s not done with me. She’ll never be rid of me. Not in this life or the next, I’ll imprint myself so deeply on her. There will be no escape.
I stand and pull my phone from my trouser pocket. I pull up her contact and begin my message, then hit send:
Over your previous stay, you earned back 10 of the 130 Belladonna patents I own. I’ll expect you back at the castle at sundown tomorrow to begin earning the rest back.
Almost immediately, I see the icon that says she’s read my text, but it’s more than an hour before she finally texts back, just two letters, but they’re all I need: OK.
Six
Present Day
Daphne
“I don’t understand.” Rachel sounds as defeated as I feel.
I stay bent over my suitcase so I don’t have to face her, but that just means I can’t ignore the damn ring glittering on my finger.
“If I don’t go back, we won’t have a company. Belladonna will cease to exist.”
“I can’t believe all this,” Rachel says. I told her the bare minimum, the castle, the patents. How I’ve been negotiating with Logan Wulfe, my father’s former student, to take back ownership of my father’s research.
I’ve left out the exact details of our negotiations. Especially how they involve me naked and bared to Logan’s belt.
“You don’t have to believe it. Just know I’ll do what it takes to get those patents back. Whatever it takes.” I force my cheeks to rise in a tight and tooth-achy smile. “It won’t be like last time. I won’t just disappear, I promise. I have my phone—” I hold up the cell with the freshly fixed screen. “And I’ll check in.”
“You better. Or I’ll tell the press where you are.”
My smile turns into a grimace. I can only imagine Logan’s reaction to a flood of paparazzi on his lawn.
“I’ll be fine, I promise.”
Rachel’s silence says it all. She doesn’t believe me. Hell, I don’t believe me. But Logan would never really hurt me. As angry as he was, he confined his punishment to a kinky game. A kinky game we both love to play. He wants a piece of ass, not a pound of flesh.
But he had wanted more. When he let me go, I saw the man he was, the couple we could be.
And then I threw it all away. Logan sees my actions as betrayal but I have to convince him otherwise. I have no choice. He holds my past, present and my future in his hands. I own you.
I unlock my phone and check my texts. The last one from Logan makes me shiver:
Over your previous stay, you earned back 10 of the 130 Belladonna patents I own. I’ll expect you back at the castle at sundown tomorrow to begin earning the rest back.
And my reply: Ok.
On my way. I add. Then I tuck my phone in my pocket and close my suitcase. The zipper is loud in the quiet. The sound is so smooth and unwavering, so final.
“All packed,” I say with mock cheer. “I called my dad and told him I’d be on break, but I’d check in.” Dad was so excited—he’d already heard of my engagement from my goddamn fiancé. I kept the conversation short. “I put you down as a second emergency contact in case something happens and the nurse can’t get a hold of me.”
Rachel stirs. “What about Adam?” she asks.
My heartbeat stutters. I press a hand to my chest.
“Daphne? Are you okay?”
“Fine,” I force out. I don’t have time to be sick right now. I have to be okay. “I don’t know what to do about Adam.”
I finally face her. She’s perfectly dressed and coiffed as usual, but she’s wrapped one arm around her middle and the other crossed over her chest, protecting and comforting herself. Her face is wan and pale.
“I don’t want to see him right now.” Funny how I’m rushing back to Logan, the Beast who locked me up, but I can’t stand the sight of the man who gave me a diamond ring.
My intuition is telling me something. I’ve numbed myself to it for years, but now it’s waking from slumber.
Maybe that’s why I’m so eager to head back to Logan. Somehow, somewhere in that castle I’ll find my truth. It’s been buried far too long.
Rachel holds my eyes for a long moment before she presses her lips together and nods. “Okay. Leave Adam to me. I’ll hold him off.”
“Thank you.” I rush to hug her.
She squeezes me, then pulls back to look in my eyes. “Don’t thank me. Just...take care of yourself, okay?”
I nod, not trusting myself to speak. Then, before I lose my nerve, I wheel my suitcase out the door. The cab is waiting to take me back to the castle.
Back into the arms of the Beast.
Because while he’s the Beast, he’s also...Logan. Sometimes the two barely fit together in my head and other times, I think, of course it was Logan all along. Of course only Logan could have ever made me feel so safe while I explored such wild things.
Only Logan would I have trusted to catch me when I leapt into the unknown. Only Logan could have known me better than I knew myself and how to draw me out.
Only Logan...always Logan.
Seven
8 Years Ago
Logan
I storm into the lab, that bastard Adam’s voice ringing in my ears as he bragged about banging yet another college co-ed who was ‘barely legal.’ What a fucking bastard. I can’t believe I ever considered that guy a friend.
When we both started working for Dr. Laurel, Adam showed me the same face he shows the rest of the world, polished golden boy, perfect in every way.
Until he realized I’m a nobody from nowhere. Then he didn’t see the point and started shirking his work off onto me, not showing up, but still expecting to take equal credit for what’s essentially become my work. Not that Dr. Laurel will hear a word against Adam, not the perfect Adam Archer. All he says is that we need to learn to get along if I want to keep my spot in the internship.
Fucking infuriating.
The door slams behind me and I hear a small yelp from the corner. I look up and freeze.
Because she’s there.
Dr. Laurel’s daughter. Soon to become a doctor herself, she’s so close to getting her Ph.D. even though she’s just a few months past eighteen.
She looks up at me, her eyes even larger and more luminous through her round bottle-glass lenses, which she immediately pulls off. But then she squints and puts them back on, running a hand through her hair and shyly saying, “Hi Logan.”